First we stopped at Key West. We made it to the 0 mile marker of US #1, the southernmost point of the continental US and the Key West Lighthouse. While Amber, Zack and Preston and I were at the lighthouse, Chad, Lisa, Chase and Katie went to the Ernest Hemmingway house to see the 6 toed cats. After that, we met up with Amber's cousin Kelly and Robert and grabbed a slice of pizza and a beer at Ricks, a local pizza place. Then we made our way to Higgs Beach to catch some rays.

*Click on images to enlarge*

The next day was our first full day at sea on the ship. We spent time lounging around the pool and checking out the ship. This is the biggest ship we have been on yet. The Carnival Freedom is 952 feet long, 116 feet wide and weighs 120,000 tons.

As always, dinner in the dining room was most excellent.... and entertaining too!! ;-)... Here are a few pics from the first couple of nights a dinner.

On our way to one of the shows, we ran into Brad, the Cruise Director. He was a riot and was more than happy to take some pictures with the kids.

Our next port of call was in Grand Cayman where we rented a car for the day. I left my license on the boat so Amber had to drive and she wasn't happy because she was not at all interested in driving on the left side of the road. We made it to all our destinations safely though... THHANKS BABY!!!

The first stop was world famous Seven mile beach. We were at the northern tip of the beach known as Cemetery Beach because access to the beach is a path beside a cemetery. The water was beautiful and we went snorkeling and chilled on the beach.

After leaving Cemetery Beach, we stopped by a local liquor store to get beer. The Liquor store doesn't open until 10:00 AM Cayman time but it's five o'clock somewhere... I'm just sayin ;-). Here on Grand Cayman they have their own brewery so we got a six pack of the local beer, CAYBREW... Now on to Smith Cove. This is a gorgeous cove with nice coral and some really cool rock formations. We saw all kinds of fish while were snorkeling including about a 6 foot shark!!!

Our last port of call was Ocho Rios Jamaica. This was the highlight of this trip. We chartered a private boat that took us to Dunn's River Falls, then the most beautiful reef I have ever seen and to James bond beach. A Big Thanks to the Captain Terri and his first mate Kavel for showing us a great time!!!!

There were hundreds of tourists from the ship at Dunn's River Falls but we had our own private guide (thanks to Captain Terri) that showed us the way up the falls. Thank goodness because I swear he had to pretty much drag Amber all the way up. ;-)

I know there are many, but this is the most beautiful reef I have ever snorkeled on. There was life everywhere you looked. While snorkeling, we got to pick up a sea urchin. It was really cool because it would stick to your hand and we had to pry it off when we were ready to put him back where he belonged.

Our last stop in Jamaica was James Bond Beach. It's famous because it is the site of filming for some scenes in the movies Dr. No and For Your Eyes Only. There was a small waterfall we got to play in which was cool because the water was cold and the ocean was warm. When you walked out in the ocean from the waterfall, you would reach a point where it was kind of cold and warm at the same time.

Our last couple of nights and full day on the ship was just more fun up on the Lido deck and dinner as usual. Our servers by the way were great and made our trip that much better.